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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

"Stop thinking of what could go wrong and start thinking of what could go right."

みなさんこんにちは! Happy lunar new year and wish you a better year :) I'm moving to Bandung for my internship next week. You know, I'm kinda introvert and socially awkward, so I think I need to fix it. I challenge myself to step out of the too much comfort zone. I hope I can make new friends, get new experience in social life, and improve my drawing skill. Step by step to go further, until I make it to Japan *fingerscrossed*About my outfit: I wore this few weeks ago, it's raining so I got chance to wear my new Princess Aurora hoodie from Uniqlo. My mom asked me to change my skort because it's so short, yes she thought I was wearing skirt, hahaha. I have some posts queuing, but I'm afraid I can't update often in Bandung because my kost doesn't provide internet connection *die*. Maybe I need to make some scheduled posts...........

Friday, February 20, 2015

Finally! #bloggerillustration has made a comeback! This time it's Diana Rikasari (again). I draw her around 2 years ago in different drawing style, you can see it here. #bloggerillustration is actually my personal project for this blog started on January, 2013. It's been 2 years now, altough I didn't draw much last year. I hope I can make it again this year, following my more-than-50-outfit-illustrations bucket list.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Yoo! A few days ago I accidentally spilled soup on my laptop and it's dead so I brought it to the service center. I was so worried it'd affect the hard disk and the worst scenario: lost all my data. I worried about my 4 years worth portfolios, photos (old and to-post on my blog), everything. Thank God it's all safe. I just submitted my final project report and got my files for internship today, so I finally can feel free (or not). I'm watching Bad Guys (나쁜 녀석들) now, it's so cool. Just my style, hahaha. And note that I started watching this because of Park Hae Jin. Sorry for fangirling.

So, back to this post. This is actually what I wore in New Year, which is a month ago. I went to the Baywalk Mall with my parents and brother, actually to watch the fireworks but I ended up miss it because I had problem with my stomach *sob*. I wore Forever 21 Bambi sweatshirt I bought in Singapore tucked in mint unbranded skirt and I add suspender to make it a little different from my usual style. I got the tote bag from mini magazine, love it because it looks sporty.
I'm gonna continue watching, so jaa ne!

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

This time I will tell you about my biggest dream, my life goal, none other than Japan! I've always been in love with Japan since I was in elementary school. I can say I'm growing up with this Japan obsession in myself. I love the culture, scenery, food, fashion, art, everything. I love how Japan still protect their traditional culture, although it's one of the most modern country in the world. Talk about the season there, I believe you will say cherry blossom is the most beautiful season. Yeah, me too, but to be honest, my favorite season will be the winter season! It's so breathtaking seeing all-white scenery on Instagram. I just can't get enough. I haven't got any opportunity to experience it yet, so just let me imagine how my ideal japanese winter holiday would be.

1. What to wear?
Of course, this is the first thing I would love to do: wearing winter apparel and layering. I just can see and adore the cute winter clothes from japanese magazines so far, without any chance to wear them in Indonesia. I also want to see with my own eyes Japanese unique fashion and be inspired for my future fashion illustration and blog, hehe.

Another thing I want to do is to wear (winter) kimono and strolling around Kyoto. I always love kimono's pattern, they're so beautiful! Kyoto has a lot of kimono rentals, and one of them is Kyoto Kimono Rental Yumeyakata. Their services include hair styling and photo session too. Some famous spots to visit are Kiyomuzi Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Heian Shrine, etc.

2. What to eat?
For me, travel means culinary. The point of traveling is not just enjoying scenery, it's also to experience new things and definitely to eat local food. Maybe most of you think about sushi right now. Everybody loves sushi, so do I. But for this special occasion, I would love to eat Nabe. Hot pot dishes in the cold weather is invincible.

Nabe is served in a hot pot, with vegetables, mushrooms, and seafood/meat as ingredients. Oden, sukiyaki, shabu-shabu are some types of nabe. One of the best nabe restaurant in Japan is Nabezo, they have over 30 branches in Japan including Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba. Nabezo offers all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu and sukiyaki with only ¥1,980, with natural ingredients and no additive even for the sauce. Quality and quantity earned, so this is a must :9

As another unique food experience, I want to try Chankonabe. Chankonabe is a huge nabe dish served for the sumo wrestlers. One of the chankonabe restaurant is Tomoegata , located in Ryogoku area (address: Japan, 〒130-0026 Tokyo, Sumida, 両国２丁目１７−６). I'm ready to eat like a sumo wrestler! :))

Beside Nabe, I think eat ramen or udon (in its home country!) will be good too!

Ikkudo Ichi is my favorite ramen in Indonesia. I really wish I can taste the original ramen in Japan! Must be おいしい!

3. What to do? Where to go?
Here we go, this will be a long story. There are sooo many winter attraction in Japan and I personally think they're all so beautiful and fun to do but well, I will sort it out. Let's start it from sight seeing!

First thing I wanna do is to see the iconic Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji is Japan highest mountain, rising 3776 meters above sea level. It stands on the border between Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, and it can be seen in Tokyo and Yokohama in clear days. Cloud or fog often blocks the view of Mount Fuji, so we can count it lucky to see the perfect view. The visibility of Mount Fuji is better during the colder weather, so this is a perfect chance, lol!

One of the alternatives to enjoy mount Fuji is Lake Kawaguchi, which is the most easily accessed location with train and bus from Tokyo. The best view of Mount Fuji can be enjoyed from the northern shores of the lake.

Ever since I read Ashley's post about Shirakawa-go in winter, I fell in love. Shirakawa-go is known for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses (some of them are even more than 250 years) and is declared as UNESCO world heritage site in 1995. The roof of gassho-zukuri is designed to withstand the large amount of snow. It's such a breathtaking view and I can't let this go when I go to Japan in winter!

One onsen that really catch my eyes is Manza Onsen located in Gunma Prefecture. It's above 1800 meters above sea level, or to be exact on the slope of Mount Shirane. This will be an unforgettable experience to enjoy the hot spring with snow background. Besides, this hot spring also known for the various benefits for health such as improving metabolism and blood circulation.

Another thing I absolutely need to do is: bathing in onsen with sakura view. Wait....sakura? In February? はい! In Kawazu, we can enjoy sakura earlier than the other areas in Tokyo. While sakura usually blooms in late March or early April, it blooms from late February to early March in Kawazu. The Kawazu is located approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes from Tokyo by train. They also held Kawazu-zakura cherry blossoms festival there. Make sure you don't miss it if you visit Japan in the winter season, especially in February.

Ah, another attraction you must-not-miss is Kawazu-zakura Matsuri (cherry blossom festival). The characteristic of Kawazu's cherry trees is its large pink flowers. Kawazu-zakura Namiki, the lines of the cherry trees continue along Kawazu River for about 4km. It's really really worth it despite the cold weather. Just see the photos below:

As I want to experience winter holiday in Japan to the fullest, I would really love to visit Jigokudani, or the so-called hell valley. Despite the name I think it's so beautiful especially this unique attraction:

To be honest, I'm kinda afraid of animals....but this one is worth to try. I want to see the wild monkey bathing in the hot spring and take a lot of cute photos of them. From what I read, we can get close to them and they almost completely ignore the people. Note that we can't touch or feed them...or even bathing with them!

What's the next thing in your mind if I mention winter? Yesss, snow! 雪!

Winter holiday won't be complete without snow, especially when your country doesn't 'let' you experience it. I would love to lay on the snow and looking into the sky, although it'll be so cold. There are a lot of alternative to enjoy snow in Japan, some of them are:

Yokote Kamakura Festival has been held for about 400 years, every February 15 and 16 in the city of Yokote, Akita Prefecture. Kamakura is an igloo-like room which is made by carving out the snow, and inside the kamakura there is snow altar dedicated to the water gods. More than 100 kamakura are built for this festival. There are also hundreds lanterns-sized kamakura along Yokote River, which are illuminated by candle lights from dusk until around 9 P.M., it's so beautiful!

Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival is located in Aomori Prefecture. Local residents build up around 500 lanterns and snow carvings throughout the park. From the castle keep, we can see mini kamakura, huge historical structure snow carving, giant slide, etc.

Started in 1950, Sapporo Snow Festival is held every February in Sapporo (capital city of Hokkaido) and for this year it will be held from February 5 to February 11. It's one of the Japan most popular event and attracts not only locals but also international tourists.

This festival shows large architecture and characters snow sculpture, ice sculpture, and snow slides as well. It's devided into three sites: The Odori Site, Susukino Site, and Tsu Dome Site. They bring snow enjoyment to the next level, so this will be a great experience and memory.

Talking about snow festival, there's another option in Niigata Prefecture and can easily reached by train. I will talk about the train later, so let me show you the festival first.

Started in the same year with Sapporo Snow Festival, Tokamachi Snow Festival is held around third Saturday of February for three days. It's held from 20 to 22 February this year. Compared to Sapporo Snow Festival, this snow festival has more neighborhood atmosphere, but has a lot of similarity with Sapporo Snow Festival.

And finally, the activity I want to do the most when I'm having winter holiday in Japan: SKI! I'm always a fan of sports, and I really really really want to try skiing and snowboarding! I know about snowboarding for the first time from manga Gals. This manga was the biggest influence of my love for Japan and fashion drawing. Back to skiing and snowboarding, where is the perfect place to do this?

Yep! Gala Yuzawa is one of the largest and most easily reached ski resort from Tokyo, located in the town of Echigo Yuzawa in Niigata Prefecture. It's known for its impressive snowfall and the experience of skiing from 1,181m down to 358m. It's also divided into some areas, such as: central area, northern area, southern area (wild zone), and downhill course. Interesting, right? I want to visit it so much *fingerscrossed*

Beside skiing and snowboarding, I also want to try the gondola. I love high places, and seeing the scenery covered by snow is....am I dreaming? I wish it would be a dream-came-true then, hahaha. I'm getting excited just from imagining this. After satisfied of having fun in the snow, I will enjoy dinner at the restaurant and eating ice cream or crepes (click). Wait, ice cream in the cold weather? Yes, why not? I want to try Blue Seal ice cream, which is originally from Okinawa.

Do you know about famous Marion Crepes in Harajuku? Now we also can enjoy it at Gala Yuzawa! *drooling*

Lastly, I want take a dip in the hot spring after enjoying the snow and cold weather. My life is compete.

Plan checked. Now, how to get there? I've mentioned about Gala Yuzawa can be reached in 77 minutes directly from Tokyo Station. So, I will introduce Tokyo Rail Days to you!

Tokyo Rail Days is a "short trips" by train departing from Tokyo. Don't worry, train-using and activity plans already included in any products, and it's also money-saving so we can enjoy your trips without stress. What's more, if we live in Indonesia, we can make the reservation via travel agencies even before coming to Japan. Stress-free! Easy buy! Easy try! Easy go!

This short trip by train is using JR East trains. JR East (East Japan Railway Company) is one of the largest train company in the world. JR East covers eastern area including Tokyo. Eastern Japan has a lot of places with snowfall and to make winter season more enjoyable, a wide range festivals and events are held there. We can enjoy romantic glittering lights in the clear winter night, festival to enjoy snow to the fullest, and the mystical snow lanterns. For us to enjoy this, JR East provide information of some place-to-go in winter season.

We can buy JR East Pass to enjoy these amazing snowy parts of eastern Japan area, which is a great deal for unlimited rides on JR Shinkasen and limited express trains. JR East Pass can be purchased at Narita and Haneda airport, or via online.

Gala Yuzawa and Tokyo Rail Days x JR East have some promo for us Indonesian can enjoy.

Buy 1 get 1 free to enjoy ski, snowboard, and gondola in Gala Yuzawa, which is the only ski resort in the world that directly connected to shinkansen station. With Tokyo Rail Days x JR East double-decker shinkansen we can easily reach Gala Yuzawa resort in 77 minutes from Tokyo Station directly, without transfer so no worry to being carried around. They also provide some packages for us:

So, it's really recommended to visit Gala Yuzawa Ski Resort if we want to enjoy snow to the fullest, with easy access to make it happens. For more information about this, you can visit their page and website (Indonesia) :
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/id.jprail
Website: http://www.jp-rail-id.com/

I wish I could make this ideal japanese winter holiday happen, so I join this blog competition. Please wish me luck! Writing about Japan in my blog is my dream (///_///)